Originally Posted by Adraco

Funny that it would ever be ok to be behind with a service company, but if a sponsor is a week late or so people scream, whine and moan. Any customer who is constantly behind, causes extra work, manual checks need to be done and follow ups and so on and so forth. I bet margins aren't that thick so they could afford to give an unmeasurable amount of leeway. At some point it's going to cost them more work and greif than you're bringing in, and at that time every business needs to pull the plug.

To say something like "I got comfortable being a month behind" is horrible in my ears. That means that you are in fact profiting, and virtually got a month for free by always being late and in theory earn interest on "their" money by keeping it for an extra month. It's one thing if it's a one time occurrence, but constantly, no that's not fair. To say something like "I wouldn't have paid the second half, had I know my stuff was gone" is also a strange way of looking at it. You requested and used a service, a service they provided upfront in return for payment afterwards. They have bills, cars, houses and stuff too that they need to pay for. Don't abuse someone's good will, you used a service and should of course pay in full and do the right thing, especially since you are not going bankrupt and even having/getting a fairly well paid job.

I pay yearly and get an acceptable discount for paying it all upfront. Which is also fair, less billing trouble, less follow ups and they get to earn interest on money they have still not provided service for, so a discount is good for both sides.